It’s been two weeks and a new race tomorrow morning so I might as well get this race report off my chest tonight! I ran a lot at Shoreline Park, quite a few 10K races — that was my 62nd lifetime, and counting — and hundreds of courses when my company, ILOG, was based in Mountain View. Another connection is with the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail organization: I’ve seen dozens of posts on my blog related to the trails along the local Stevens Creek Reservoir and Stevens Creek. As well as the former and original running club, the Stevens Creek Striders.

At the risk of killing some of the excitement, I made it to the podium (age group) again and one of the organizers asked me how many times I had run this race. I responded with 14, but felt bad all the way home knowing I had made this up and probably inflated that impressive number, out of a total of 30 issues. Especially knowing that I had quite a few struggles at the end of September, like a 150-mile Spartathlon in Greece a couple of weeks ago, a few 50-mile Fire Trails that same weekend, a couple of years out due to injury, and a few work travel struggles as well. Well, I didn’t check it but 14 was the correct answer, bingo!

What a series: 2002 (34:39), 2003 (34:52), 2006 (34:16), 2007 (33:57), 2009 (37:14), 2010 (34:25), 2011 (34:24), 2012 (35:21), 2013 (36:24, one day after the named Appropriately Stevens Creek 50K!), 2014 (35:59, 7 days later) podium finish in 24 Hour Nationals), 2015 (36:29, 7 days after the Ohlone 50K), 2017 (36:07), 2018 (38:18, followed by 50K training immediately after the race), and 2025 after that.

RD briefing, mostly to invite us to participate in the raffle.

Oops, there was supposed to be an easy-to-separate ticket on the apron, but it turned out to be a paper cutting (and calligraphy) workshop, but there’s still time before the start hopefully:

There has been some building work on the traditional path, with a gravel section added to access the park entrance on the way out. My last 10K was last December, as part of a DoDouble race where I raced first the 10K, then the 5K, with 90 minutes between the two start times. After coming back from my meniscus injury (7 months of running), I ran 40:36 and 20:08, and ended up winning a huge award for best lifetime performance. This time, without having to save energy for the next 5k, I was hoping to stop for at least 40 minutes.

As you can imagine with flat racing, it started very quickly. I overheard a couple of guys on the start line talking about a 5-minute/mile pace, which I’ve maintained but haven’t done for several years now, even on the track. I did the first mile in 6:27 which was already feeling pretty fast based on my recent training.

The second mile was 6:42, including the new gravel section through the large parking lot at the entrance to Shoreline Park. I could hear a runner breathing into my neck during the third mile we ran in 6:39, then 6:37 for the fourth mile in which he passed me. I couldn’t keep up his pace but I still managed to go the fifth mile faster at 6:35.

The last mile is interesting as we return to the shared bike path with the 5K loop, and then bump into the group for that other race, starting 15 minutes after the 10K. The challenge is not only to zigzag to pass the slower racers, but also to avoid the racers who are still on the outside of them. Including a few strollers, without forgetting road users on their bikes. Despite all these obstacles, and in my red zone, I clocked 6:29 for mile 6. But the effort wasn’t enough to achieve my goal, crossing the finish line in 40 minutes and…an embarrassing 30 seconds.

I know it’s all relative, I still won my M60 age group by a good margin, and it wasn’t a very competitive race. Talk about RelativityAlthough it’s not the speed of light, I checked some data points broken down by age:

Before the awards ceremony, I was back on the course to run a 5K cool down timed 5K in 22:39.

It’s so nice to have one of my 5K race participants, Samir, introduce himself and share that he enjoys reading my blog.

Oh, and this is another sweet tradition from the last three decades with Hobbie’s contribution of delicious, delicious coffee cake sheets!

Our M60 platform:

Another race t-shirt artwork, and special thanks to the sponsors who helped provide more funds to continue expanding the Stevens Creek Trail from the bay to the Cupertino Hills.

Now to our traditional Ruth Anderson Memorial Endurance Race Tomorrow, we’ll be running loops around Lake Merced in San Francisco. I’m still not sure if I’ll stop at 50k or continue for 50 miles (we can decide at the 50k mark). I’m checking this time in case someone asks me again, this will be my 16th post.

See you next year, all Stevens Creek Trail friends!